Ok, I’ll just say it. Even though I pick the hymns, plan the services, live with the Rector, and follow the lectionary, lent snuck up on me this year. All of my worship eggs were in the Transfiguration Sunday basket . The final Sunday of Epiphany was a blow-out-pull-out-the-virtual-stops sort of day. It was a glimpse of glory in so many ways, and I had been anticipating it for weeks. But the thing about the final Sunday of Lent is that Ash Wednesday is just around the corner. Quite literally. And so here I sit at 3 in the afternoon on this penitential day, a little shell-shocked that it has come.

I have had the above hymn running through my head…. since high school. I have never seen or sung it anywhere except the Green LBW – Lutheran Book of Worship – with which I learned my first hymnody as a high school student. I don’t even really remember singing it at Calvary, but I spent many hours playing through that hymnal in my living room, and I always came back to this hymn. Maybe it’s the walking. Maybe it’s the transformation. Maybe it’s the journey. Maybe it’s the future hope. I don’t know. But it’s my theme for Lent 2010. Our life with Christ is lived one step at a time, with God’s grace, the hope of heaven, the love of the Father, and the equipping of the Holy Spirit as our constant companions. Lent, to me, is a specific season each year to make deep, abiding investments in that journey. Living so much of my Christian life in mega-church Evangelicalism helped to deepen my walk with Christ, but [for me] cheapened my Easter experience because we were not a Lenten people. I am profoundly grateful for each chapter of the story that Jesus is writing in and with and through my life. I wouldn’t want to be where I am now without the experiences of my life before. And my life before lives in deeper relief in my memory because of the elements of it that I miss now.

Anyway, I digress.

There’s always the talk of giving up stuff for Lent. Chocolate, candy, bread, Facebook, celebrity blogs, The Bachelor – the list is endless. I think there is a lot of merit to the idea of asceticism for the sake of knowing Christ more deeply. I think of Philippians 3 – giving up adored things for Lent is one small way that we can share in the fellowship of His sufferings. Skipping peanut butter cups isn’t going to make me more like Christ, though, if it’s a mere 40-day religious habit. But if peanut butter cups are part of something that cause me to think of myself more than others, that distract me from discipleship, that rob me of a God-centered life, then Lent is a great time to add the discipline of skipping them.

So, Stephanie, you ask, what are you giving up for Lent? Nothing. I’m putting something on for Lent. And I’ll state them publicly for the good of the order.

Reading during Lent: NT Wright’s Reflecting the Glory , and also finishing the Thoene Zion Covenant series – again. The Wright makes me want to be more like Christ, and the Thoene reminds me to pray for the persecuted in our broken world. It breaks my heart. And I need my heart to be broken.

Putting on during Lent: I will tell you this if you promise you won’t laugh. Promise? ok. Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred will be a 40 Day Shred for me, Sundays off. Some discipline with my body and with exercise is dramatically necessary at this moment in my life. I love this DVD, it kicks my butt, and making it a 40 day commitment with the intention of honoring Christ with my temple sounds like a very good thing to do.

Committing to memory during Lent: The te deum(see below), and the words to the hymn above will be read every morning and every night. I intend to commit them both to memory. I can’t think of anything better on which to fix my eyes and ears.

Communicating during Lent: I’ll be blogging my way through. The discipline helps me, whether anyone reads it or not.

I have several gigs over the next 40 days in non-Lenten contexts… I’m opening for Fernando Ortega in Madison on March 12th, leading worship for the Women in Christian Media national conference on February 26th, working with Jill Briscoe and Anne Graham Lotz for Just Give Me Jesus in Greenville on March 19-20, so there are many opportunities to make deep spiritual investments in my own life that will have the opportunity to overflow and bless others. That’s what I’m praying, but I’m mostly praying that my soul’s journey will bless the Lord, and that all within me will bless His holy name. The Lord to me is so infinitely kind.

Love to you, dear brothers and sisters in the faith.

Steph

We praise thee, O God:
we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee:
the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud:
the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubin and Seraphim
continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy :
Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty
of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world
doth acknowledge thee;
The Father of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man
thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death
thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting.
O Lord, save thy people
and bless thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up for ever.
Day by day we magnify thee;
And we worship thy Name ever world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us
as our trust is in thee.
O Lord, in thee have I trusted
let me never be confounded.

hey, friend. always appreciate taking the lenten journey with you…and, i am again this year. God has been clear for me how He would like for me to join Him in the fellowship of His suffering this Lent. i look forward to the fellowship…..with Him….with you! can’t wait to see you in south carolina along the way!

A deep felt thank you for your post. This reminds me of my Mother during the prayers at the Eucharist. She said there was always something, altho said every single Sunday, that jumps out at her and stays with her for days…”we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs”…she said that one always seemed to stick with her a lot. Your post…”maybe it’s the walking…maybe it’s the transformation…maybe it’s the journey”…how well put…it will stay in my heart and mind these next forty days. THANKS again!

Oh, Ruth Ann, I wish I knew your mom! And I wish I more often had the opportunity to pray that prayer from the Rite I Holy Eucharist service. That one always makes me cry. Thanks for all of your encouragement. You are one sweet lady!

Oh Steph, thanks so much for replying! Mother was a wonderful woman; loved her faith; loved her church. She made the fair linen for the altar; needlepointed the communion kneelers….such a quaint, pretty little church here in our town.

You and I have a mutual admiration society! I think you are so very special too! there are so many things about your family that remind me of a family that I am close to and it just warms this little ol’ heart – The Houk’s, Meg and David and 4 younguns – where David is the rector at St. John’s in Dallas; I would think ya’ll would probably be around the same age. stjohnsepiscopal.org. they have a really neat site. You’ll see Fr. David in the midst of kiddos w/ their hands painted! 🙂
I hope you have a great day, and thank you again for responding!

I love and read your posts. I, too, am glad you will be blogging through it. I spent Sunday afternoon with a music guy at church and we scoured hymnbooks for appropriate hymns to sing after two sections of our liturgy: repentance and restoration. We discovered three I love and several so-so ones.

And hooray for memorizing the te deum. I’m reading Facing East about Orthodoxy. Mathewes-Green calls the ancient hymns “stone-washed” hymns. I love that.

Hi Steph – I stumbled on to your blog from Joel H’s fb page. Yes and Right On to your perspective on Lenten fasting. This season I’ve been recommending fasting from peanut-butter-cup-style-semi-fake-fasting! I’m also focusing on putting on something, trusting that God in His mercy and by His power will cover those things that need covering and shed those things that need to be left behind. Christ has mercy.

Dear Steph, as always I love what Jesus puts on your heart! Thanks for sharing with your friends! One of my “treasures” for Lent this year is “Jesus, Keep me Near the Cross ~ Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter”, Edited by Nancy Guthrie. This gal has put together a wonderful collection of writings that help the hungry heart feast on the Father’s great love for us in Jesus.

Oh, Jane, how I love that book! Nancy is a dear friend – my Gabriel song was written for her son – and in fact I was a guest reader of her manuscript for ‘Hearing Jesus Speak Into Your Sorrow‘. That Easter collection is one in a million. Thanks for reminding me of it for this year!!! Love you so, Steph

Steph, I started reading and pondering, then the phone rang. Now I’m trying to regroup after talking to my two little grands. It reminded me of how easily the world distracts us from that which the Lord places on our hearts. So now I’ve re-read your thoughts again and am excited to follow your Lenten journey and encourage you along the way!

Of course, now I’m feeling a little grumbly, too, having come from a background that did recognize the Lenten season to one that hardly mentions it :::sigh:::